mr_mister
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
And just as a contrast, the top 10 batting averages from these 4 series (min 350 runs so I can include Archie Jackson )Top 10 bowlers ranked by wickets in the 4 ashes series from 1926-33
Grimmett - 70
Larwood - 64
Tate - 45
Wall - 37
White - 28
O'Reilly - 27
Geary - 23
Allen - 21
Ironmonger - 21
Hammond - 19
These same bowlers ranked by lowest averages
O'Reilly - 26.8
Larwood - 29.9
Wall - 32.2
Geary - 33.0
White - 33.1
Allen - 33.7
Ironmomger - 33.9
Tate - 36.9
Grimmett - 38.4
Hammond 46.3
And a few added names, Gregory averaged 73.3 with 6 wickets and Mailey 42.3 with 14
An easy time for bowlers it was not - yet a lot of these guys are remembered as legends - Larwood was unfortunate he played 75% of his tests in these 4 series
Macartney - 94.6 (473 runs)
Bradman - 87.5 (1838 runs)
Hammond - 66.0 (1651 runs)
Sutcliffe - 65.5 (1703 runs)
Duleep - 59.4 (416 runs)
Jackson - 58.3 (350 runs)
Hobbs - 51.6 (1238 runs)
Hendren - 49.5 (792 runs)
Woodfull - 48.2 (1447 runs)
Ryder - 47.1 (565 runs)
You can see nearly all the big names of the era were seeing them pretty well and making life hell for the bowlers. I can understand why Jardine did something drastic - maybe if Bradman didn't come along Woodfull might have been dumped from the captaincy after 1930 and it would have been Vic Richardson ordering Eddie Gilbert to dig them in short against Hammond in 32-33